Seeing Jiang Wen suddenly disappear through the high moss wall, the Chang brothers' eyes were full of horror, and they no longer dared to think of letting Jiang Wen take the lead in stepping on the thunder.
At this time, there were alley walls on both sides. The two of them did not care about distinguishing the direction, and unanimously identified the wall on the left. They suddenly threw the flying claws at their waists to hook on the wall eaves, and climbed up with both arms.
The high wall was crumbling on the outside but strong on the inside. The two struggled several times on the slippery wall and finally entered the courtyard.
This ancient courtyard is as quiet and motionless as an ascetic who has been sitting in the wilderness for a long time. As the grass and trees wither and the sun rises and sets, it is finally covered with dust and weeds.
All the door leaves and plaques in the courtyard have disappeared, leaving only dark doors, leaning against the rotten wooden doorposts on both sides, like a toothless old man screaming silently and hoarsely.
After landing, Chang Hezhi looked at the two tattered white paper lanterns warily.
"I didn't expect such a scene inside the wall. It seems to be a yizhuang..."
His younger brother Chang Bozhi also held a flying claw in the shape of a skull and said in a low voice: "It makes sense that there is a baby tower at the entrance of the alley, and there is a yizhuang inside. No wonder the locals never come here..."
"There seems to be someone there, I wonder if it's..."
Chang Hezhi said slowly and looked into the distance.
In the cold night, you can vaguely see two rows of dilapidated palaces built behind them. They all stand lightly in the cold wind and rain of the past, and will continue to bear witness until this land reaches its end.
Perhaps out of human self-protection, the Chang brothers subjectively ignored the dark clouds hovering over the courtyard, and turned a blind eye to the faint blue phosphorescence coming from the doors and windows of the hall.
This feeling is like that of a severely burned person who suddenly notices that the hot water has turned cold, inspiring them to walk towards the hospital in confusion.
It was also when they walked into the door that the Chang brothers realized that the high-pitched roar that had just been so close had quietly disappeared, and the whole world went silent, without even a trace of noise.
As if they realized that their breathing was too rough, the two began to divide their breath into a dozen sections and slowly exhale, hoping that the breath would not disturb the vocal cords or nasal cavity.
Then they seemed to feel that their steps were too harsh. They carefully searched for the landing point with every step they took, straightening their joints to ensure that there was no friction sound.
The silence here is so abnormal that living people who usually make heartbeats have become incompatible existences in this environment.
His younger brother Chang Bozhi's mind was filled with thoughts, trying to imagine how long ago this courtyard was bustling with people and doors, and the experience of building bricks and tiles, so as to dispel the fear of this shelter.
But it was no use. Chang Bozhi soon discovered that in the extreme silence, even the act of "imagining" seemed to have become noisy.
The movement of searching eyes is like tearing cloth, the current of thinking is like thunder, everything is too noisy.
When the two brothers resisted the rejection in their hearts, followed a hazy shadow and walked forward, taking the last two steps and finally reaching the main hall to find some inner comfort, they realized what rash conclusions they had made.
…
In the dimly lit hall, a strange-looking Buddha statue had its arms holding flowers broken off and half of its smiling face. It seemed to be filled with silence, sadness, and helplessness. It looked down at the horrific remains of the entire room.
Dead people, countless dead people!
The Chang brothers have always boasted their courage and ruthless skills. It was common for them to spend the night with their master in the barren mountains and to borrow ancient tombs, but there was no place where the aura of death could be condensed so clearly that it could be seen with the naked eye!
The hall is filled with all kinds of coffins and corpses.
There is a coffin of black lacquered nan wood, decorated with gold thread carvings, and painted with auspicious clouds and lotus flowers, which seems to bless the deceased and carry him to bliss in the afterlife.
There is a thin coffin of cypress wood, painted with raw lacquer, and a roll of gray linen is used to wrap the deceased in it, showing filial piety in a poor and shabby way.
There are also three boards made of unknown miscellaneous wood. The rotten wood is already covered with holes eaten by insects and rats, barely giving the deceased a decent appearance without his body exposed.
Not to mention, there are still dead people wrapped in straw mats and rolled up, not caring about their feet but their heads, and rotting corpses tied up with dog cakes and laid out in broad daylight.
There are still many exposed ones, some with bruised faces, some with swollen bodies, some with blackened bodies, some with dismembered bodies, some chopped with knives and axes, some withered and rotten...
As a gust of wind blew in the hall, an indescribable stench almost disabled their sense of smell, and their eyes were stung by black air like needles.
The Chang brothers, who were just starting out in the world, had never seen or even imagined that people would look so dirty and despicable after death. Perhaps at the moment when the soul sheds its shell, this body is no longer
"People" should be classified as "things".
Things cannot be used to their fullest potential and are stuck between materials and materials. Is this the end of "things"?
They had no time to think about such a problem. Chang Hezhi saw his younger brother hiding his face behind him and seemed to be trying to exit the door, stumbling and almost falling, so he quickly reached out to stop him.
Don't retreat, don't advance. As they retreated, both of them forgot how quiet the current environment was, and their footsteps stomped dully on the ground.
This kick made a loud sound like a morning bell on the ground where the bluestone slabs were broken and raised by weeds. They seemed to be able to feel an invisible sound wave spreading in all directions, locking the air in silence.
The long-lasting atmosphere is broken layer by layer.
Something that died has come back "alive".
At that moment, the two brothers saw in the main hall ahead, countless corpses on display like volcanoes spewing out countless dim air currents, rattling the dilapidated doors and windows in all directions.
Indescribable dark, sticky, gloomy and ugly figures appeared in the airflow one by one. With the reluctance in life and the resentment in death, they turned the corpse odor into beautiful clothes, and the dust gathered into silk shoes and spider webs.
Tangled into a crown, insects and ants turned into beads, Shi Shiran stood in the hall!
…………
Jiang Wen passed through a hidden and majestic door and entered a desolate bookstore.
In the era before Jiang Wen traveled through time, there was a technique called optical illusion that could be seen everywhere. For example, geometric patterns were used on the wall to make the plane three-dimensional, appear taller, or even weirder, creating an architectural illusion effect.
The elusiveness and fleeting appearance of the people in the dark alley are no longer some unexplainable supernatural phenomenon in Jiang Wen's eyes - this alley is clearly the work of some people with extreme ingenuity!
In other words, the moldy moss, the scale gate, the stone paths, and the oppressive sky in Netherworld Alley are all deliberate designs by the builders.
Shushi studies pictures and words, and obviously knows that images, as the most primitive language, can transcend different individuals and achieve the effect of mutual recognition.
It's like the doors on both sides of Netherworld Alley have always been there, but they are hidden among the mildew somewhere like the magic of light and shadow.
The location where the door appears happens to be in the blind spot of vision. The nerves and blood vessels there converge into bundles leading to the brain. There are no photoreceptor cells and cannot receive light stimulation. The image of an object falling on this point cannot cause vision.
With the light and shadow blocking the dark alley and the repeated flashing of the pillars of the Hengmen, this small door will be subconsciously ignored by people.
People who deliberately search often find nothing after walking through Netherworld Alley for the first time. At this time, they will look harder and harder at those desolate and decayed scenery - at this time, they will become more and more trapped in the spiritual suggestion that cannot be suppressed.
The builders used geometric arrangements, visual imaging and other means to deliberately create visual deception effects to deceive the intruders' eyes, causing visual illusions in the intruders and achieving a magic-like hidden effect and psychological suggestion.
Until the self-suggestion breaks out, the ghosts and gods in the alley will appear in front of you at that moment...
If we want to use words to describe it, then the eight words "leading to the underworld" and "no way to find" are the invisible elephants written on the picture of heaven and earth by the people who built this underworld lane.
Although there are no real ghosts in an alley, it can bring out the ghosts deep in people's hearts. Is it considered a ghost or not?
Perhaps there were once countless living people here making grooves, tops, plates, and patterns. There were also countless people here day and night setting up books, sorting, proofreading, and printing. But now, there is only a channel of stale and smelly stagnant water.
, soaked in a wooden wheel that can no longer turn.
"The engraving of the Netherworld and the emergence of fierce ghosts at night seem to be a very reasonable thing..."
Jiang Wen stood in the printing shop where corpses stood like a forest. Looking at the corpses with severed heads and stiff and weird postures, he suddenly felt that everything was not so difficult to accept.